Impact of rainstorm-triggered landslides on high turbidity in a mountain reservoir     

Guan-Wei Lin  Hongey Chen  Dave N. Petley  Ming-Jame Horng  Shuei-Ji Wu  Bin Chuang 《Engineering Geology》2011,117(1-2):97-103

Typhoon-triggered landslides deliver huge amounts of sediment to the upstream channel of the Shihmen Reservoir in northern Taiwan. Observation data regarding landsliding, sediment discharge and water turbidity following five major typhoon events from 1985 to 2006 demonstrated that each time water turbidity in the reservoir area rapidly increased up to ten-fold from the river catchment drainage, and the weight of landslide debris exceeded total sediment discharge five-fold. The fact that huge amounts of landslide debris still remained on upstream slopes and water turbidity suddenly increased in the reservoir area but not in upstream channel implied that the increasing water turbidity in the Shihmen Reservoir was indirectly related to the large landslides occurring in the upstream catchment. The main cause of high turbidity in the reservoir area was that, during a typhoon event, high water discharge flowing into the reservoir scoured the fine fraction sediment at the bottom of the reservoir and formed hyperpycanl flow with high turbidity, which then ascended to contaminate the reservoir surface water.  相似文献   

Geoconservation for science and society: challenges and opportunities     

Colin D. Prosser  David R. Bridgland  Eleanor J. Brown  Jonathan G. Larwood 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2011,122(3):337-342

Well managed and accessible geological and geomorphological sites are important to both science and society, for research, education, and, in some cases, for recreation. In this viewpoint paper we celebrate achievements in the field of geoconservation over the last 60 years since the first geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest were designated in the UK following the passing of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in 1949. With a range of new political, social, economic and environmental challenges and opportunities coming to the fore, geoconservation now needs to innovate and adapt in order to sustain and enhance its influence and effectiveness. In advance of the 2011 Geologists’ Association Annual Meeting, Geoconservation for Science and Society: An Agenda for the 21st Century, we give our view on the challenges and opportunities facing geoconservation and the areas in which new approaches and partnerships are required to secure the long-term conservation of our geological and geomorphological heritage.  相似文献   

Location Intelligence: An Innovative Approach to Business Location Decision‐making     

Patrick Weber  Dave Chapman 《Transactions in GIS》2011,15(3):309-328

As one of the leading ‘world cities’, London is particularly reliant on sources of foreign direct investment (FDI). In the face of increasing global competition and a difficult economic climate, the capital must compete effectively to encourage and support such investors. Through a collaborative study with London's official FDI promotion agency, Think London, the need for a coherent framework for data, methodologies and tools to inform business location decision‐making became apparent. This article discusses the development of a rich environment to explore, compare and rank London's business neighbourhoods. This is achieved through the development and evaluation of a model for location‐based decision support. First, we discuss the development of a geo‐business classification for London which draws upon methods and practices common in geodemographic neighbourhood classification. A geo‐business classification is developed, encapsulating relevant location variables using Principal Components Analysis into a set of composite area profiles. Second, we discuss the implementation of an appropriate Multi‐Criteria Decision Making methodology, in this case Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), enabling the aggregation of the geo‐business classification and decision‐makers' preferences into discrete decision alternatives. Finally, we present the results of the integration of both data and model through the development and evaluation of a web‐based prototype.  相似文献   

Comments on “recent trends in precipitation in Eastern Canada”: Correspondence     

Ross D. Brown 《大气与海洋》2013,51(1):175-176

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Ellipsoidal geometry in asteroid thermal models: The standard radiometric model     

Robert Hamilton Brown 《Icarus》1985,64(1):53-63

This paper reports results of the incorporation of ellipsoidal geometry into the standard radiometric model for asteroids. For small departures from spherical shape the standard model using spherical geometry predicts fluxes in good agreement with ellipsoidal models. Large departures from spherical shape, however, can produce substantial differences in the calculated flux depending on the subsolar temperature and the wavelength of interest. The results derived here suggest that radiometric measurements of highly nonspherical, low-obliquity asteroids interpreted with spherical models result in systematically smaller diameter and higher albedos. In addition, non-spherical shape can also result in a systematic difference in the diameter of a particular asteroid derived from separate 10- and 20-μm flux measurements interpreted with spherical models. Thermal-infrared diurnal lightcurves calculated for ellipsoids have amplitudes that depend on wavelength as well as projected area, and phase curves calculated for ellipsoids are indistinguishable from those calculated for spheres.  相似文献   

Applying Resilience Thinking to Natural Resource Management through a “Planning-By-Doing” Framework     

Michael Mitchell  Rod Griffith  Paul Ryan  Greg Walkerden  Brian Walker  Valerie A. Brown 《社会与自然资源》2014,27(3):299-314

Natural resource management (NRM) organizations are increasingly looking to resilience thinking to provide insights into how social and environmental systems interact and to identify points of intervention. Drawing on complex systems analysis, resilience thinking emphasizes that landscapes constantly change from social and ecological interactions, and focuses NRM planners’ attention on identifying key variables, feedbacks, and thresholds that can help improve intervention strategies. More deliberative approaches are being developed to use resilience thinking in ways that engage and build human capacity for action. This article documents experiences shared with NRM agencies in rural Australia as we developed new approaches to link resilience thinking with collective learning principles. We present an emerging framework through which heuristics associated with resilience thinking is being used as part of a planning-by-doing process. The framework is being tested to assess whether and how it can enable change agents to advance their capacities for adaptation and transformation.  相似文献   

Implications of sea-level rise and extreme events around Europe: a review of coastal energy infrastructure   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Sally Brown  Susan Hanson  Robert J. Nicholls 《Climatic change》2014,122(1-2):81-95

Sea-level rise and extreme events have the potential to significantly impact coastal energy infrastructure through flooding and erosion. Disruptions to supply, transportation and storage of energy have global ramifications and potential contamination of the natural environment. On a European scale, there is limited information about energy facilities and their strategic plans for adapting to climate change. Using a Geographical Information System this paper assesses coastal energy infrastructure, comprising (1) oil/gas/LNG/tanker terminals and (2) nuclear power stations. It discusses planning and adaptation for sea-level rise and extreme events. Results indicate 158 major oil/gas/LNG/tanker terminals in the European coastal zone, with 40 % located on the North Sea coast. There are 71 operating nuclear reactors on the coast (37 % of the total of European coastal countries), with further locations planned in the Black, Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The UK has three times more coastal energy facilities than any other country. Many north-west European countries who have a high reliance on coastal energy infrastructure have a high awareness of sea-level rise and plan for future change. With long design lives of energy facilities, anticipating short, medium and long-term environmental and climatic change is crucial in the design, future monitoring and maintenance of facilities. Adaptation of coastal infrastructure is of international importance, so will be an ongoing important issue throughout the 21^st century.  相似文献   

Climate projections of future extreme events accounting for modelling uncertainties and historical simulation biases     

Simon J. Brown  James M. Murphy  David M. H. Sexton  Glen R. Harris 《Climate Dynamics》2014,43(9-10):2681-2705

A methodology is presented for providing projections of absolute future values of extreme weather events that takes into account key uncertainties in predicting future climate. This is achieved by characterising both observed and modelled extremes with a single form of non-stationary extreme value (EV) distribution that depends on global mean temperature and which includes terms that account for model bias. Such a distribution allows the prediction of future “observed” extremes for any period in the twenty-first century. Uncertainty in modelling future climate, arising from a wide range of atmospheric, oceanic, sulphur cycle and carbon cycle processes, is accounted for by using probabilistic distributions of future global temperature and EV parameters. These distributions are generated by Bayesian sampling of emulators with samples weighted by their likelihood with respect to a set of observational constraints. The emulators are trained on a large perturbed parameter ensemble of global simulations of the recent past, and the equilibrium response to doubled CO₂. Emulated global EV parameters are converted to the relevant regional scale through downscaling relationships derived from a smaller perturbed parameter regional climate model ensemble. The simultaneous fitting of the EV model to regional model data and observations allows the characterisation of how observed extremes may change in the future irrespective of biases that may be present in the regional models simulation of the recent past climate. The clearest impact of a parameter perturbation in this ensemble was found to be the depth to which plants can access water. Members with shallow soils tend to be biased hot and dry in summer for the observational period. These biases also appear to have an impact on the potential future response for summer temperatures with some members with shallow soils having increases for extremes that reduce with extreme severity. We apply this methodology for London, using the A1B future emissions scenario to obtain projections of the 50 year return values for the 20 year period centred on 2050. We obtain 10th to 90th percentile ranges of 35.9–42.1 °C for summer daily maximum temperature, 35.5–52.4 mm for summer daily rainfall and 79.2, 97.0 mm for autumn 5 day total rainfall, compared to observed estimates for 1961–1990 of 35.7 °C, 42.1 and 78.4 mm respectively.  相似文献   

Impacts of agricultural irrigation recharge on groundwater quality in a basalt aquifer system (Washington, USA): a multi-tracer approach   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Kyle B. Brown  Jennifer C. McIntosh  Laura K. Rademacher  Kathleen A. Lohse 《Hydrogeology Journal》2011,19(5):1039-1051

Irrigation in semi-arid agricultural regions can have profound effects on recharge rates and the quality of shallow groundwater. This study coupled stable isotopes (²??, ¹⁸O), age-tracers (³H, CFCs, ¹⁴C), ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios, and elemental chemistry to determine the sources, residence times, and flowpaths of groundwater and agricultural contaminants (e.g. NO ₃ ^?C ) in the Saddle Mountains Basalt Aquifer in central Washington, USA, where over 80% of the population depend on groundwater for domestic use. Results demonstrate the presence of two distinct types of water: contaminated irrigation water and pristine regional groundwater. Contaminated irrigation water has high NO ₃ ^?C concentrations (11?C116? mg/l), ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios (0.70659?C0.71078) within range of nitrogen-based fertilizers, detectable tritium (2.8?C13.4 TU), CFC ages 20?C40?years, high ??¹⁸O values (?16.9 to ?13.5??), and ??100 percent modern ¹⁴C. Pristine regional groundwater has low NO ₃ ^?C concentrations (1?C5? mg/l), no detectable tritium (??0.8 TU), low ??¹⁸O values (?18.9 to ?17.3??) and ¹⁴C ages from ??15 to 33?ky BP. Nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of NO ₃ ^?C , combined with high dissolved oxygen values, show that denitrification is not an important process in the organic-poor basalt aquifers resulting in transport of high NO ₃ ^?C irrigation water to depths greater than 40?m in less than 30? years.  相似文献   

Pliocene volcano-tectonics and paleogeography of the Turkana Basin,Kenya and Ethiopia     

Ronald L. Bruhn  Francis H. Brown  Patrick N. Gathogo  Bereket Haileab 《Journal of African Earth Sciences》2011,59(2-3):295-312

The distribution of hominin fossil sites in the Turkana Basin, Kenya is intimately linked to the history of the Omo River, which affected the paleogeography and ecology of the basin since the dawn of the Pliocene. We report new geological data concerning the outlet channel of the Omo River between earliest Pliocene and final closure of the Turkana Basin drainage system in the latest Pliocene to earliest Quaternary. Throughout most of the Pliocene the Omo River entered the Turkana Basin from its source in the highlands of Ethiopia and exited the eastern margin of the basin to discharge into the Lamu embayment along the coast of the Indian Ocean. During the earliest Pliocene the river’s outlet was located in the northern part of the basin, where a remnant outlet channel is preserved in basalts that pre-date eruption of the Gombe flood basalt between 4.05 and 3.95 Ma. The outlet channel was faulted down to the west prior to 4.05 Ma, forming a natural dam behind which Lake Lonyumun developed. Lake Lonyumun was drained between 3.95 and 3.9 Ma when a new outlet channel formed north of Loiyangalani in the southeastern margin of the Turkana Basin. That outlet was blocked by Lenderit Basalt lava flows between 2.2 and 2.0 Ma. Faulting that initiated either during or shortly after eruption of the Lenderit Basalt closed the depression that is occupied by modern Lake Turkana to sediment and water.Several large shield volcanoes formed east of the Turkana Basin beginning by 2.5–3.0 Ma, volcanism overlapping in time, but probably migrating eastward from Mount Kulal on the eastern edge of the basin to Mount Marsabit located at the eastern edge of the Chalbi Desert. The mass of the volcanic rocks loaded and depressed the lithosphere, enhancing subsidence in a shallow southeast trending depression that overlay the Cretaceous and Paleogene (?) Anza Rift. Subsidence in this flexural depression guided the course of the Omo River towards the Indian Ocean, and also localized accumulations of lava along the margins of the shield volcanoes. Lava flows at Mount Marsabit extended across the Omo River Valley after 1.8–2.0 Ma based on estimated ages of fossils in lacustrine and terrestrial deposits, and possibly by as early as 2.5 ± 0.3 Ma based on dating of a lava flow. During the enhanced precipitation in latest Pleistocene and earliest Holocene (11–9.5 ka) this flexural depression became the site of Lake Chalbi, which was separated from Lake Turkana by a tectonically controlled drainage divide.  相似文献